i am a very rookie hunter and i am looking for some info. i've heard that the moon phase can and often does have a strong effect on deer behavior. i looked into it online a little bit and just got more confused. some people seemed to say that deer move the most during nights with a lot of moon, which makes sense. but heres where i got confused: some said that would trigger lots of deer movement in general and the hunting would be good, while others said that the deer would move all night and bed down all day so the hunting would be bad. any insight?

also, i read some things about how the moon affects the rut. something like the rut usually occurs during the second full moon after the fall equinox. any thoughts?

and lastly, not related to the moon, ive read things saying that you should take moon phase and the weather into consideration, and that a front will change deer behavior too. how exactly does a front do this?

i dont go by moon phase but thats just me. i do hunt harder ahead of and after a large front. ive noticed they will feed alot right before a front. as for the rut. nothing effects the rut in my eyes. it could start on a whim and they could go back into no rutting just like that. as for deer moving at night. they do move at night more, during the rut they run all day and all night. a mature buck will bed down with a doe after he hit it and if he dont have one he will just go find some. know what im sayin. they will try to find as many as they can. just go out and scout your area and find out when and where they move the most and set up if u can.

p.s. hunt during the rut as long and as much as you can if your looking for a buck. you dont need to be in rut to shoot a big one though. as for early in the year, hunt their food and trails going to and from beds to food. easiest time to take a big one if he is in the area.

I think it depends on where you are. Down south deer will tend to move more during a full moon phase but won't just shut them down during the day. Moon phase, weather, pressure, and several other factors will determine the rut. Down south the rut get triggered but the weather alot. Soon as it gets cold its game on. Don't look to much into this and that. Learning the lay of the land and patterning the deer movement will insure a sucessfull day. Find funnels, pinch points, watch the wind and make sure you have good equipment not mater weather its primitive or modern. It you don't have funnels make some. Its not hard just takes time.

As a rookie, don't get too worried about the details. You are probably out to get a deer, any deer, and a yearling better watch his hide. What you want to do is figure out where they deer will eat and where they will bed down during the day and how they will get back and forth between the two.

If the deer are not pressured and there is food near cover, they will slip out for a snack at about any time of the day. When the deer are traveling they will use the available cover to get from where they are bedding during the day to where they are eating at night, so that's where the funnels and other things come into play. If they are eating over a fairly wide area and bedding over a fairly wide area, but there is some natural feature that will force more of them to pass through a more narrow area as they move in between, then you are in business.

Then you need to figure out how you are going to get in and get out without making the deer aware of your presence. If you expect them to be eating in a particular field then don't walk through that field on the way to your stand. Wind is very important and you don't want to have it blowing at all if you can get that, but definitely not from you to the deer. Looking at satellite images of the area is a great way to figure out where the deer are going to be at different times of the day. Once you can start to figure that out, then you are in business. Then just be smart and get there before they do without them knowing you are in the area.

When you do see deer try to figure out why they were there when they were there and where they came from and where they were going. It will start to make sense.

If you are targetting big buck, well they didn't get big by walking around in the open, so you need to be even more careful, think smaller, you are hunting one deer and they can bed in a bathtub if they feel safe, and hunt during the rut because like most guys, we tend to lose our mind when chasing the ladies.

I say, the best time to go is when you can! I hunt a very small property and don't have the luxury of moving around. I travel a lot for my job so I just hunt when I can. You can't get em if you're in the house, unless you're a squirrel and it's my house! Jim